The swathe of tape that adorns the shoulders of Australian Rules Football players may be a thing of the past with a study showing it has no impact on preventing dislocation.

In a paper published in the latest British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers from the Orthopaedic Research Institute at St George's Hospital in Sydney tested the impact of shoulder taping on players without a history of injury to that joint.

Shoulder injury is the second-most common ailment in Australian Rules Football due to the constant overhead work demanding by marking (or catching) the ball, says senior author Professor George Murrell.

"You see a lot of AFL (Australian Football League) players with strapping around their shoulders and it is never clear whether it has any benefit," says Murrell.

"Trainers and physiotherapists think by strapping the shoulder it is more stable."

However Murrell says because the injury during dislocation occurs deep inside the shoulder "something on the skin is not going to affect that".

For the study the team assessed the joint laxity (or stability) of 33 male players with the St George Crows, a feeder team for the AFL team Adelaide Crows, while taped and without any taping.

"If you are going to tape a shoulder it should make it tighter, but we found there was no difference," says Murrell.

The study also tested whether the taping improved players' awareness of their shoulder joint's position and found again the taping had no impact.

The final part of the study assessed through a handballing test whether taping improved confidence and the ability to perform skills.

Murrell says the study showed taping did not impair, improve or change their handballing accuracy.

Further research

He says the findings are not instantly transferable to other joints, as studies have shown that ankle taping and taping of certain knee conditions are beneficial.

"What we found is very specific for the shoulder," he says.

However it suggests the practice of taping and the medical benefit of the approach should be looked into further.

"[This study] gives us a template to look at other joints," he says.

The findings of the study, which was initiated by the AFL, has been presented to team doctors of the various AFL teams and presented at a recent symposium, says Murrell.